In Ankara,
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan told Antonio Guterres, the head of the UN, on Tuesday that Israel should be held responsible in international courts for what he called “war crimes” it did in Gaza.
More than 15,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s air and ground attacks against Hamas fighters. Those numbers come from the Gaza Health Authorities.
Hamas went on a killing spree in southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and holding 240 hostage. This led to the attack.
The Turkish presidency said that Erdogan and Guterres talked on the phone before Wednesday’s UN Security Council meeting about Gaza. They talked about the “expectations of the international community regarding Israel’s unlawful attacks,” how to get humanitarian aid into the enclave, and how to make peace last.
“During the call, President Erdogan said Israel continues to shamelessly trample on international law, the laws of war, and international humanitarian law by looking in the eyes of the international community, and it must be held accountable for the crimes it committed in front of international law,” the statement said.
The foreign office of Turkey said that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan would go to New York for the UN Security Council meeting.
It also said that Fidan would meet with his peers as part of a “contact group” of some Muslim countries set up this month by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to talk about Gaza with Western countries and others.
Turkey has strongly condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza and asked for an instant end to the fighting so that talks about a two-state solution to the larger conflict between Israel and the Palestinians can begin.
The strikes by Israel on Gaza were called genocide by Erdogan, who also said that Israel was a “terror state.” Israel denies these claims and says it is acting in self-defense against an enemy that wants to destroy it.
In contrast to the US, the EU, and some Gulf countries, Turkey does not see Hamas as a terrorist group and welcomes some of its members. Except for Spain and Belgium, which back Israel, it has been said that the rest of the West is involved.
